On today’s episode, Kunle interviews Jimmy Hickey, Co-Founder & CEO of Findlay Hats, a 6 year-old Portland-based company producing unique, functional and patented hats. “Built for Good Times” is the common theme running through their comms, work culture and customer community.

Jimmy shares his story of leaving behind professional photography to pursue what was a sidegig he started along with Co-founder, Sarah Wishard. They started out in a living room with their first batch of 80 hats, and have today grown to a 7-figure business having a 100k strong community called “Findlay Force”.

Jimmy shares his insights and learnings from growing his company organically using communities and word-of-mouth, to fast-tracking growth leveraging Facebook ads. You will get to hear about strategies to use in Facebook marketing, and how to build (and manage) active communities.

Here is a summary of some of the most important points made,

• Findlay Hats had already grown organically before leveraging FB ads
• Your website is a crucial part of your marketing (and conversion) strategy
• It is possible to learn “the rules of the game” and manage your own FB ad account
• The base of any company is a strong product and exceptional customer service
• Generating social proof of your business is crucial to attracting new customers

Covered Topics:

On today’s interview Kunle and Jimmy discuss,

• Building Organically
• FB marketing strategies
• Community management tips
• Challenges of expanding globally

Timestamp:

• 6:05 – Meet Jimmy Hickey
• 7:20 – What makes Findlay Hats unique?
  • Patented stampede lace
  • Utility that makes them “Built for good times”
  • Hidden Stash pocket
  • Lifetime warranty
  • Embroidery, leather patches done and other finishing done in-house
  • Product-focused company – 12/15 staff in production
• 9:45 – Strategy upon launching:
  • Focus on word-of-mouth marketing
  • Building a community organically
• 11:20 – How their community was their patent before the actual patent
• 12:55 – How Findlay Hats was only a side-gig to begin with
• 15:30 – Initial days and founding team:
  • Started with 1400 bucks and made 80 hats in a living room to start
  • Started the company with Co-Founder, Sarah Wishard, who now runs the seamstress dept
  • First website was on Squarespace, but moved to Shopify after a year
• 16:30 – Getting the first 1000 customers
• 17:28 – “We wanted to be the hometown hero, before we can be a global brand”
• 19:10 – How direct communication with people on FB & IG helped create the “Finlay Force”
• 24:10 – Using community, contests, collabs, events to find new customers
• 26:40 – How a chance meeting with a customer got them on the first page of Reddit
• 27:45 – Transitioning from organic-only to targeted FB ads
  • After a slow 2016, they jumped into FB ads in 2017
  • Jimmy learned the trade through courses on udemy and facebook blueprint
  • Making short videos worked on FB ads
  • Jimmy still manages his FB ad account
  • Shoelace – agency who helps with retargeting
• 32:20 – Minor product strategy change which allowed higher ad spend:
  • Mystery box was added in 2020
  • Changed to weekly drops instead of seasonal launches
• 39:40 – DNA of a Finlay Force member
• 42:21 – Tips for managing facebook groups and communities
• 46:05 – 3 principles for high-performing FB ad campaigns:
  • Create strong eye-catching content that “stops the scroll”
  • Great Offer with a strong CTA
  • Targeting the right audience (Protip: Lookalike audiences)
• 49:45 – This one thing can derail your otherwise perfect social media strategy
• 50:45 – Tenets of building strong and active communities:
  • Genuinely caring about followers – “Find out what they are passionate about and relate to”
  • Direct communication – Jimmy and his colleagues spend 20-40 hours/week on this form of interaction
  • Superior customer service – nobody should have bad memories of the brand
  • Generate social proof – “98% of people on the internet don’t actually comment or engage, but they read comments and reviews”
  • Have a strong and unique product backed by customer-friendly warranty and return policies
• 57:34 – Lessons learnt from expanding globally
• 62:50 – Lightning round

Lightning Round:

1. Q: What advice would you give to yourself 5 years ago?
   A: Learn about FB advertising now!
2. Q: Are you a morning person?
   A: NO!!
3. Q: What’s your morning routine?
   A: Wake up between 8am-9:30am, walk the dogs, have coffee, spend some time on Reddit before heading out to the warehouse.
4. Q: What are 2 things you can’t live without?
   A: My Dogs & Caffeine
5. Q: What are 3 indispensable tools for your business?
   A: Shopify, Gorgias (for customer service), Facebook & Shipstation
6. Q: What’s been your best mistake till date? A set back that’s given you the biggest feedback
   A: Not starting FB ads till as late as 2017 was the mistake. But that forced us to grow organically and focus on building our community.

Takeaways:

• Focus on growing locally using your community helps build your brand
• You must genuinely care about your fans to build a responsive engaging community
• Lookalike audiences are very useful when trying to bring new people into your funnel
• Generating visual proof of your business through reviews, comments, shares is critical for bringing in new customers

Links & Resources

• Shopify
• Gorgias
• Shoelace
• Shipstation

Tweetable Quotes:

“We wanted to be the hometown hero, before we can be a global brand”

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